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This report is the culmination of five years of research intended to search for a "global" solution to the problem of get recalcitrance. It synthesizes and develops a substantial body of Working Papers that were published on the Agunah Research Unit's website during the course of the research. For the launch lecture, please visit

R. Shlomo Riskin presents a halakhic case for religious Jewish courts of law to be permitted to annul marriages under extreme circumstances of refusal of a husband to grant a divorce. He proposes this annulment, called hafka'at kiddushin, as a solution to the problem of recalcitrant husbands. A debate between Rabbis Riskin and Jeremy Wieder can be followed in additional articles referenced on this page.

The author describes examples of Agunot and brings different opinions that advocate for an addendum to the ketuba that includes language on requiring husbands to not be allowed to withgold from their wives gets.

ADDITIONAL READING

Rabbi Moshe Meiselman addresses the attitude of Jewish law to women and how the Jewish tradition views the contemporary challenge of feminism. He discusses in detail such current issues as creative ritual, women in a minyan, aliyot for women, talit and tefillin. The question of agunah is also given lengthy consideration. The author mixes current issues with scholarly ones and gives full treatment to other issues such as learning Torah by women, women position in court both as witnesses and as litigants, the marriage ceremony & marital life.

How has a legal tradition determined by men affected the lives of women? What are the traditional Jewish views of marriage, divorce, sexuality, contraception, abortion? Women and Jewish Law gives contemporary readers access to the central texts of the Jewish religious tradition on issues of special concern to women. Combining a historical overview with a thoughtful feminist critique, this pathbreaking study points the way for "informed change" in the status of women in Jewish life.

Breitowitz focuses on what many regard as the cutting issue of Jewish law as it grapples with the disintegrative forces of twentieth-century life: the problem of the agunah or "stranded wife." In addition, the Agunah issue raises intriguing questions about the impotence of religious law in a secular society and how the establishment and free exercise clauses intersect to facilitate or hinder the accommodation of religious interests.

One of the most vexing problems to confront American Orthodox Jewry is where a wife is abandoned by her husband who refuses to give her a Jewish divorce. This work seeks to explain the agunah problem in the United States. It notes that the contemporary agunah problem in America is radically different than that of contemporary Israel and completely different than the talmudic agunah problem.

This book, editied by JOFA founder, Blu Greenberg, is an examination of the agunah problem and looks at background and halakhic sources pertaining to the issue. problem. It proposes that the doctrine of kiddushei taut (error in the creation of marriage) be expanded to include blemishes that arose after the marriage was entered into and that this doctrine then be used by rabbinical course to solve the modern agunah problems related to recalcitrance.

Based on historical data, Rabbi Riskin argues that there are ways in which women can start divorce proceedings. In an appendix, Rabbi Riskin presents his version of a premarital agreement designed to prevent this situation from occurring.

A critique of some of the detailed arguments in Za'aqat Dalot. Halakhic Solutions for the Agunot of Our Time, by Rabbi Monique Susskind Goldberg and Rabbi Diana Villa of The Centre for Women in Jewish Law, The Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, published in Jerusalem, 2006.

This paper considers many of the arguments from the authority structure of the halakhah which are used to resist proposals for halakhic change, especially arguments relating to the need for stringency (often consensus) in gittin and qiddushin.

Rabbi Yosef Shapotshnick of London wanted to release all agunot with a general permit based on a Talmudic concept, and provide conditional marriage with a new marriage contract that he authored. R. Shapotshnick was considered a renegade by other rabbis. This paper translates one of R. Shapotshnick's works.

The author presents an annotated translation of comments that were previously published in reaction to R. Yehudah Lubetsky's 'En Tenai BeNissu'in (there is no conditional marriage), which was published in Warsaw in 1930.

Dr. Susan Aranoff explains the way in which the Rackman Beit Din uses kiddushei ta?ut (a marriage based on a mistake) to free agunot without a get. She also refutes the three main objections that others have to the use of this method and comes to the conclusion that the Rackman Beit Din is very careful to analyze each case carefully and annuls a marriage only when it is halakhically acceptable.

This article discusses the problems involved in enforcing prenuptial agreements from both a legal and Jewish perspective as well as offering an alternative solution from medieval sages which avoids these problems.

This article describes the way in which agunot come together to support and help each other through all stages in their lives. Bluth focuses on P.A.V.E.S. (Perspectives and Vital Experience Sharing), an agunah support group formed provide the members with emotional support and practical guidance, helping them move forward and lead happy productive lives in the community.

Prof. Taylor (East Carolina University, Greenville NC) points out the two opponents underlying Rothenberg’s book – the first the puritanical (perhaps Christian) tradition, which regards sex as a sin, and the other modern, perhaps ‘feminist’ readings of canonical texts. While Rothenberg admits that these texts are “written by and for men,” warning that they must not be read anachronistically, he acknowledges that “it is possible, and even desirable to infuse the old sources with new and valid meanings” (p. 186). According to the reviewer, the book addresses “the feminist revolution” in a “cautious and oblique manner.”

This article is an appendix to a book entitled Marriage, Divorce and the Abandoned Wife in Jewish Law: A Conceptual Understanding of the Agunah Problems in America by the same author. The book is referenced on this page. The goal of the appendix is to demonstrate the nature of the halakhic response to questions of kidushai ta'ut -- errors in the creation of a marriage based on information not being revealed. Essentially, this section notes that while the grounds upon which women could argue that kidushai ta'ut occurred were extremely narrow in talmudic times, broader in the era of the rishonim, and have grown yet further in America in the last 50 years, this halakhic truth was predicated on a social reality regarding marriage.

Rabbi Dratch describes the way in which a get is often used by a husband to control his wife. He believes that withholding a get is a manipulation of the halakha and is equivalent to physical, emotional, or sexual abuse.

Rivka Haut recommends that couples going through a divorce negotiate custody, visitation, and division of assets in a civil court instead of in a beit din. She also discusses the problems that exist within many batei din and makes suggestions for how the Orthodox community can affect change in this corrupt system.

This paper was written in anticipation of the Global Rabbinic Conference convened to meet in Jerusalem in November 2006, but cancelled at the last moment. It updates "Agunah and the Problem of Authority" (above) by reference to the work of the Agunah Research Unit from January 2004, and especially the papers (listed here) of Rabbi Dr. Yehudah Abel.

This was the initial agenda paper from which the work of the Agunah Research Unit, University of Manchester, commenced. After an Introduction stating the premises of the research, it considers the history of each of the main proposed solutions: conditional marriage, coercion and annulment. It summarises the problems of authority which such solutions encounter, especially the demand for consensus, and in its tentative conclusion outlines a possible solution based on the interaction of different remedies and the explicit statement of the authority for such interaction.

Malinowitz enumerates the problems associated with the New York State Get Bill and contends that in addition to not being an effective solution to the agunah problem, it actually creates more problems for the validity of gittin, thereby threatening the sacntity of the Jewish family.

In 1925, Rabbi Henkin offered a proposal to solve the agunah problem in America. This article outlines both his proposal and that of Rabbi Louis Epstein which followed shortly after Rabbi Henkin's, showing how two couragous men used rabbinic creativity to try and solve this problem that has long plagued the Jewish community.

Reiss stresses the importance of resolutions adopted by the Rabbinical Council of America which establish certain default principles as to the appropriate time boundaries for a get to be given, or for a spouse to otherwise submit to a final determination of the beit din.

Rabbi Riskin discusses a halakhic solution based on five different Talmudic passages in which a religious court retroactively annuls a marriage without a valid get. He shows that this solution has been used in extreme cases throughout history.

Three top scholars and activists examine Jewish womens efforts to resolve the plight of agunot and the struggle of Orthodox feminists to reconcile this issue with their adherence to halakhic lifestyles.

Despite the biblical edict that two witnesses are required to bring testimony for evidence to be considered valid in court (Deut. 9:15), the Rabbis were lenient when it came to releasing an agunah. Yet, according to Shiloh, “The Sages would release a woman from the state of agunah even on the basis of circumstantial evidence, and would even allow the testimony of a child, a woman, a relative, a concerned party, and even of a non-Jew speaking in good faith. Even the agunah herself could attest to being a widow if she was the only one who saw her husband killed” (Maimonides, Hilkhot Gerushin, ch. 13). Yoel Shiloh discusses the sources, the justification for this leniency, and the implications in the contemporary context.

In this article, R. Dr. Lebowitz deals with the grounds for a wife to submit a claim for mental anguish due to her husband's refusal to engage in conjugal relations while living in the marital home. Based on this case, he also raises questions about whether a wife can submit a claim for mental anguish if her husband is intransigent regarding the get. R. Lebowitz states that rabbinical courts should insist that resolving the issues of the end of marriage include addressing spousal claims for mental anguish.

Rabbenu Tam opposed coercion in divorce, arguing that coercion has no basis in Talmudic sources. In this scholarly and fascinating article, the author argues that the gaonic view, which allows for coercion, is well-grounded in tannaitic and amoraic sources, as well as later anonymous Talmudic discussions. He claims that interpreting these sources to justify coercion is even the preferable interpretation.

The author discusses three concepts and their possible applicability for terminating a marriage: (a) "terminative conditions", i.e. a case where an event that occurs during married life makes the marriage retrospectively void, based on an explicit stipulation of the spouses at the time of marriage; (b) "mistaken transaction", i.e. a fact that was in existence at the time of marriage, but one spouse was unaware of it, and if he or she had been aware of it he or she would not have married. In this case, the awareness of that fact at a later time reveals the actual status of the marriage: the marriage is based on a mistake, and therefore has never been valid; (c) "'umdena". This case lies between the previous ones: it is based on a fact that we assume could lead one of the spouses to cancel the marriage. But this fact was not in existence at the time of the marriage so no "mistake" actually occurred at that time.

This paper studies two halakhic traditions in which divorce was issued at the wife's demand, with analysis of their interaction between them. It also examines the status of three halakhic concepts of unilateral termination of marriage: coercion of a get, terminative conditions, and annulment of marriage. The goal of the author is to explore the halakhic tools which enable issuance of divorce against the will of a recalcitrant spouse.

The author presents arguments to support his claim that Rabbi Riskin (in his article referenced on this page "Hafka'at Kiddushin: Towards Solving the Aguna Problem in our Time") does not justify his solution. Aside from halakhic arguments, R. Wieder presents practical arguments, maintaining that unless all segments of the Jewish community accept this solution, it is not viable. He also argues that such a solution as R. Riskin proposes will undermine the integrity of kiddushin.

This is the fourth and final article in a series of articles (referenced on this page) in which Rabbis Riskin and Wieder debate the applicability of hafka'at kiddushin. R. Riskin proposes using hafka'at kiddushin as a solution to the problem of recalcitrant husbands who refuse to give their wives a divorce. R. Wieder opposes this. Each presents halakhic arguments to defend his position.

This article is intended to explore the feasibility of a universal document to be executed at or prior to marriage wherein, in effect, the parties agree to cooperate in a halakhically valid termination of a "dead marriage" (which has been or is about to be terminated civilly), by the delivery and acceptance of a get (a halakhicaly valid bill of divorce).

ORA, the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot, is a not-for-profit organization which assists disputing couples in resolving their differences and effectuating a timely Jewish divorce in accordance with the highest standards of Jewish law." The site has some resources and a list of seruvim (and scans of them), which are documents issued by a Beit Din (Jewish court) identifying an individual as being in contempt of court.

JewishPrenup.org is a website that promotes signing prenups, in particular the RCA prenup for those planning on living in the United States and the Council of Young Israel Rabbis in Israel prenup for those planning on living in Israel. There are other versions that are offered by various organizations and the reader is advised to carefully examine the available prenup options before choosing the most appropriate one and not rely solely on any one opinion.

The Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Manchester established in 2004 an Agunah Research Unit to examine the halakhic problems involved in refusal of a husband to give a get. The research Unit is under the direction of Professor Bernard Jackson, a specialist in Jewish law, and Co-Director of the Centre. The purpose of the Unit is to explore ways, within the Orthodox Halakhah, to solve the problem of the mesurevet get (where a husband refuses to give a get to his wife, despite being ordered by a Bet Din to do so

The movie Mekudeshet is a sobering look at the state of affairs of agunot in Israel. This panel, made up of a US agunah activist, a former agunah, and the movie's director, will discuss differences between the US and Israeli systems, some personal experiences, and suggested solutions.

Years after the epidemic of iggun became a recognized phenomenon, we are still struggling to find a solution to this problem. This session will include activist advice on what the community can do to help free women whose husbands deny them their get and will focus on ways, including the use of halakhic pre-nuptial agreements, to prevent any more Jewish women from falling victim to this terrible fate.

This session analyzes four Halakhic solutions for dealing with the agunah problem: kiddushei ta'ut, annulment, conditional marriage and procedural invalidation of the marriage ceremony. Aranoff discusses the issues involved and and what grass roots Orthodox men and women can do to promote the acceptance of these solutions.

Can civil law act as a catalyst to change minority practices that discriminate against women? Theorists of gender and multiculturalism have argued that civil law can play a role in creating conditions that compel communities to change their norms into more egalitarian ones. This session explores this thesis, using the example of the Canadian Get Law to alleviate the plight of Canadian agunot. Has this law resulted in different norms for the issuance of divorce decrees? The development of novel solutions? A reinvigorated religious legal authority?

In this practical and informative session, two prominent attorneys will discuss how the beit din and civil law intersect in divorce law. How does arbitration affect the rabbinic courts and how are decisions of the beit din played out civilly? How do the civil get laws work and what kind of protection do they afford Jewish women? Are prenuptial agreements enforceable in a civil court of law?

In Israel, the Tel Aviv rabbinical court recently used a new tactic? the retroactive invalidation of a get ?because the court deemed that the conditions imposed on the woman (pertaining to the childrens? custody and visitation rights) had not been met by her. The use of this shocking tactic has been growing in recent years. Is this legal? Is it kosher? What is going on here and what does it portend for the future?

This session examines the roles women have played in the process of developing proposed solutions to the agunah problem. It includes a first-hand description of Rachel Levmore's personal role as a Rabbincal Court Advocate

The tri-partite agreement uses three separate elements to end a marriage independent of the will of the husband. The novelty of this approach is that one document incorporates three elements, each of which has significant halakhic support. Is this the solution we have been waiting for? What conditions must be met before it can get widespread rabbinic approval? Will this solve the iggun crisis?